Your College Concierge Peter Ratzan

In recent decades, Ivy League schools have adopted a policy of ensuring that applicants’ inability to pay tuition won’t stop a school from admitting them. More recently, a number of Ivies have offered full scholarships covering room, board and tuition for students coming from families with incomes below $65,000. The number of low-income students–and diversity among the students–is increasing, thanks to these programs.

But these well-intentioned initiatives have produced somewhat disappointing results. A recent study by researchers at the Equality of Opportunity Project based on anonymous tuition records and tax filings reveals that Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn and Brown have more students from the top 1 percent of the income distribution than from the bottom 60 percent.

We recently came across a study revealing that the number of middle-income students in these schools is decreasing as the upper- and lower-income ratios increase.

What do these trends mean for middle-class families? If your student isn’t applying to an Ivy League school, is there something to learn from this? Listen to our latest podcast episode to hear us discuss this topic!

Applying for financial aid, whether it's federal aid with the FAFSA or scholarships and grants, is a big part of preparing for college for many families. One aspect of financial aid that isn't always understood is financial aid appeals. What is a financial aid appeal and why would you use it? We'll cover this thoroughly in this episode.

With so many options to consider after high school--from online classes to trade schools to job experience to college to travel--what are the reasons to go to college today? Peter and Carla discuss the pros and cons of college now verses in the past. Listen in..what do you think is important or outdated about college now?

Taking the SAT or the ACT may be one of the most stressful times in a high schoolers' experience. The pressure to perform well to end up with a good score is intense for many students. There are ways to reduce the anxiety, however, and be well prepared when it's time to take the test(s). We cover a range of options in this episode, from low or no budget to more expensive solutions. Listen in and share with your student!

So many high school students feel some level of uncertainty or anxiety about choosing a college major, and it's completely understandable. Most students have heard many times from teachers, parents and other adults that choosing a major in college is an important decision. It's one of the first big independent decisions of your academic and professional life.

As a high school student, you had to deal with people asking, “Where are you going to college?” Now that you’re entering college, the question changes to, “What are you majoring in?”

How much does your major even matter?

What criteria should you use to choose one?

What if you have NO idea?

What if your parents want you to choose a major you don't like?

We'll help answer these questions in this episode!

Recently in the news, the University of Chicago projected to be the first U.S. university to cost $100,000 a year. By 2025, the cost of attendance at elite private colleges may reach the $100,000 mark, based on projections by The Hechinger Report using annual college cost growth rates from 2008 to 2018.

That would likely make the University of Chicago the first college or university in the United States to break the six-figure mark. Three other schools — Harvey Mudd College in California, Columbia University in New York and Southern Methodist University in Texas — are projected to cost almost as much.

However, fewer students are paying the full tuition. Is widespread discounting helping more people afford higher education, or just making it more complicated?

We discuss why costs are rising so fast and how middle class families can address this challenge of the cost of higher education.

If you want to learn more about list prices (what a college advertises) and net prices (what a student expects to pay based on income), we also recommend the updated Tuition Tracker, a Hechinger Report project that crunches federal education data reported by each institution into nice bite-sized pieces.